Business

What Is a “Conscious Business?” (as Defined by a Conscious CEO)

October 19, 2021 by Cory Ames Leave a Comment

In this post, you’re going to learn exactly what is a “Conscious Business.” You’ll also learn what a conscious business is not.

And to do so, we’re going to hear from Meghan French Dunbar, a leader in the space of purpose-driven business.

Meghan is the former CEO of Conscious Company Media, which was the nation’s leading media company dedicated to purpose-driven businesses and social enterprises.

And now she’s the co-founder of a new impact-driven venture called Womxn Led, which is an international community bringing womxn business leaders together to grow and thrive.

Let’s dive in.

What Is the Meaning of “Conscious Business?”

Conscious Business: A Definition

Meghan French Dunbar
@MeghanFrenchDunbar

There are all sorts of people who talk about this stuff, but there’s no agreed-upon definition.

So this is my own personal definition: a conscious business is a business that:

Is led by a conscious leader
Takes all stakeholders into account
And has a higher purpose beyond profit

What is Conscious Leadership?

Meghan French Dunbar
@MeghanFrenchDunbar

There are a lot of companies out there that have a sustainability department and they’re doing great things.

But leaders at the top aren’t bought in, they aren’t aware of their actions, and they aren’t actually acting as conscious business leaders. There are plenty of examples out there that I’m sure people are aware of.

The conscious leader is someone who actually walks the talk, who has determined values and actually lives by them as someone who is conscious and aware of their actions on a daily basis, and who has the ability to respond thoughtfully rather than react.

These were the kinds of ways in which we defined “conscious leadership” at Conscious Company Media, and these are the capacities possessed by the best conscious leaders that I ever came across.

This would be people like Justin Rosenstein of Asana; Eileen Fisher of Eileen Fisher; Kevin Rutherford of Nuun: all people who exhibit fantastic leadership.

Justin Rosenstein, Asana

Eileen Fisher, EILEEN FISHER

Kevin Rutherford, Nuun

Cory Ames
@AmesCory

Cory’s Note:

As Meghan points out here, there are significant differences between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and authentically purpose-driven businesses and business leaders.

And while there isn’t any hard and fast defining line, it’s important to go through the exercise of sorting through what is what.

One way of doing so is to look at the leadership. Learn more about who they are, what their origin story was for getting into business, and how they see the relationship between their business’s operation and success and the welfare of people and the planet. Meghan provides some excellent examples here—other leaders that I’d comfortably add into the conversation: Giancarlo Marcaccini with Yogi Tea, Corey Kohn with Dojo4, or Madeleine Shaw.

Stakeholder Business Model

Meghan French Dunbar
@MeghanFrenchDunbar

This is a big, BIG issue.

Most businesses on the face of the earth have subscribed to the idea of shareholder supremacy.

This has even gotten to the point where people have said…

We have a fiduciary obligation, we have a legal obligation that we have to maximize profits for our shareholders.

And as a result of that, businesses have gotten away with murder. This is the reason why we have companies that pollute rivers and do terrible things to their workers.

It’s because they’re saying they actually have a legal obligation to maximize the profit for their shareholders (at the cost of everything else). This has been replaced in the last 30 or so years with the idea of a stakeholder. A stakeholder is anyone or anything that your company’s actions affect.

Cory Ames
@AmesCory

Cory’s Note:

Meghan here is referring to the concept of “Shareholder Primacy.”

In this style of capitalism, the core purpose of a business is to produce profits or returns for its shareholders or investors.

This is contrasted with a newer, more equitable approach to business called “Stakeholder Capitalism.”

Stakeholder Capitalism is a system of capitalism where businesses are expected to serve and consider all stakeholders, not just shareholders in their decision-making.

This could also be known as “triple bottom line” businesses, businesses that put their profits on par with their social and environmental impacts.

Stakeholders (as Meghan will say more about) include employees, customers, the environment, local communities, and more, along with the investors and shareholders.

Meghan’s mention of the “fiduciary obligation” and the “legal obligation…to maximize profits for our shareholders” has become popularized within the business world by a quote from economist Milton Friedman.

Meghan French Dunbar
@MeghanFrenchDunbar

A stakeholder would be:

Your employees (they’re number one)
Your customers
The community that you operate in
The environment

And yes, your shareholders—your investors—are also stakeholders.

To understand the stakeholders affected by your business or organization you can make stakeholder maps and ask, “Who/what are all of the people and entities that our company’s actions directly affect?”

A conscious leader takes all stakeholders into account. And a conscious business really needs to be looking at its effect on every single stakeholder that the company contacts and attempt to have a positive impact on those stakeholders. Period.

Cory Ames
@AmesCory

Cory’s Note:

There are useful tools and resources to help businesses better understand the stakeholders that they affect.

While not explicitly a Stakeholder Map as Meghan was describing it, the B Impact Assessment is an incredibly robust tool provided by B Lab, the nonprofit behind the B Corporation Certification.

When completed, the assessment offers a business a look at its impact on its community, customers, employees, and the environment.

Conscious Business = Purpose > Profit

Meghan French Dunbar
@MeghanFrenchDunbar

This is where we talk about the why behind the business.

Patagonia is the conscious business poster child. It says this explicitly in its purpose statement:

“Build the best product. Cause no unnecessary harm. Use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.”

That’s in their stated purpose!

And yes, they do make money as a result of their purpose.

But your purpose as a company cannot just be to make money. It must be something much bigger than that, a higher purpose beyond profit.

Cory Ames
@AmesCory

Cory’s Note:

This final point is key from Meghan. Really, it’s what tops off the whole definition of a “conscious business.”

I think this is best explained with another example.

Let’s take Dean’s Beans, founded by Dean Cycon. The mission of Dean’s Beans is simple:

“…use specialty coffee as a vehicle for positive change.”

When founding Dean’s Beans in 1993, Dean had the idea that he’d create change in the coffee industry through showing that an ethical, fair, and just coffee business could be sustainable, incredibly impactful, and profitable.

He knew that a coffee business could be run fairly for all stakeholders involved while remaining profitable and highly successful by traditional business standards.

The businesses success was, and continues to be, a vehicle for achieving more.

Coffee farmers are paid fairly and are able to invest in their own businesses and communities. Dean’s Beans becomes a model, showing that profitable and ethical business practices can coexist. The “big players” can no longer say it can’t be done.

Meghan French Dunbar
@MeghanFrenchDunbar

Those are the three key components of what we look at when we’re talking about conscious business.

Again, a conscious business:

Is led by a conscious leader
Takes all stakeholders into account
Has a higher purpose beyond profit

That’s what I came up with after talking to over 1,000 business leaders in my time at Conscious Company.

Misconceptions or Misunderstandings about Conscious Business

Meghan French Dunbar
@MeghanFrenchDunbar

The number one thing that I see the most often is that, if a company has a sustainability department or a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) department, it is then, in fact, a conscious business.

I think of the way that we just described a conscious business as a holistic lens. Every facet of the company isn’t “conscious” when we’re only talking about sustainability or a CSR department.

That is more just like a business with sustainability tacked onto the side.

Yes, they can do wonderful things. I’m not poo-pooing sustainability departments. They’re fantastic. I know wonderful people who run incredible sustainability departments and CSR departments.

But it doesn’t mean that the company itself is a conscious business.

You can be doing incredible things for the environment and treating your employees like crap. You can have a wonderful kind of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and then maximize profit to the extent that you’re having negative externalities all over the place and doing terrible things to the environment.

I mean, there are all these kinds of trade-offs that you can make with sustainability departments. Monsanto has a sustainability department. Halliburton has a sustainability department. Those are not conscious businesses in my opinion.

Cory Ames
@AmesCory

Cory’s Note:

We caught this earlier, but it’s worth mentioning again.

CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and truly mission-driven businesses are not the same thing.

While businesses with CSR departments and positions can fall under Meghan’s “conscious business” definition, it certainly shouldn’t be assumed.

In the most critical form of this, author Anand Giridharadas calls this “doing well by doing good.”

I’m often asked about what’s the difference between CSR and truly impact-driven business… 👇 https://t.co/QMmq3IDtri
— Cory Ames (@AmesCory) September 9, 2021

Companies use their CSR and impact-related initiatives to create the appearance of being a responsible or positive community member while on the other end causing significant destruction through their business practices or influence.

For a deep dive on this, check out Giridharadas’ excellent book, Winners Take All.

Conscious Businesses Out in the World

What’s a company that you think models what it means to be a “conscious business?”

Let me know with a comment below.

— — —

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity, and originally hosted on the Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation Podcast from Grow Ensemble.

Cory Ames

I’m Cory Ames. I’m a writer, podcaster, social entrepreneur, and the Founder of Grow Ensemble.

➡ More about me

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100 Podcast Tips for Starting, Sustaining, & Growing a Show

Cory AmesJuly 21, 202040 min read

Want the audio version of this post? Listen here: We launched The Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation Podcast in January 2019. Now, just a little over a year and a half later, we’ve hit the 100 episode milestone! This podcast has…

100 Podcast Tips for Starting, Sustaining, & Growing a Show

July 21, 2020 by Cory Ames

Want the audio version of this post? Listen here:

We launched The Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation Podcast in January 2019. Now, just a little over a year and a half later, we’ve hit the 100 episode milestone!

This podcast has become much of the ‘base’ from which we launched Grow Ensemble, our media and marketing company in the space of social impact and sustainable business.

Growth has been steady, with 2020 listenership up 290% over 2019, now spanning 116 countries around the world and counting!

I’ve learned a ton, made good friends (and & clients), and can’t imagine stopping the podcast now that we’ve started. 100 episodes in, I’ve learned a lot on podcasting, read a lot on podcasting, and now want to share more on our process in hopes to help you.

Approach this post like a guidebook—take it chapter by chapter. This is a monster! So, it’ll be best to tackle these 7,500+ words and 100 podcasting tips in pieces.

Hopefully, this can be a resource to help get you started. And while it’s not exactly a step-by-step guide, it’s (almost) all of the best I can share from my experience thus far.

Happy Podcasting! 🎤

Contents:

Tips for Starting & Launching a Podcast
Tips for Sustaining a Podcast
Tips for Recording Podcasts
Tips for Booking & Interviewing Guests
Tools & Tricks for a Successful Podcast
Tips for Editing & Publishing a Podcast
Tips for Promoting & Growing a Podcast

Getting Started & Launching a Podcast

Start a Podcast

Start a podcast? That’s your tip? Yes! That’s a “tip!” Starting the Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation Podcast has been one of most valuable practices and assets for Grow Ensemble. If you can afford to launch and sustain one of your own (see more on: budget), I think it’s worthwhile!

Here are a few ‘step-by-step’ guides that helped me:

How to Start a Podcast in 2019: 8 Steps from Idea to Launch

How to Start a Podcast: The 1,000,000 Download Formula

Set Goals & Objectives for Your Show

Before you get started, seriously consider what you are attempting to accomplish with your new podcast—business development, brand awareness, or maybe you hope to use it to develop relationships. Identifying your purpose will help manage your own expectations and serve as a check to see if a podcast will in fact be a fulfilling experience for you.

While a podcast can certainly drive financial return for your business, if that’s your only goal, you may be better suited doing something else. There are more efficient mechanisms to achieve that goal both in terms of time and finances. Podcasting is an involved activity. I am a firm believer that if you aren’t enjoying the process itself, and instead are looking only for results, it will be difficult to create a successful show that satisfies the itch that motivated you to start..

Listen to Other Shows!

To progressively make a better show, you need to be a student of podcasting. I know this is an area of growth for our show, but even still, I always appreciate the insight I gain when I’m paying attention to what I like about the shows that I subscribe to, as well as the shows that consistently rank among the most popular.

Review Others’ Experiences on Podcasting

Since starting the podcast, I’ve become an ‘addict’ for others’ reflections on their own experiences running and growing a show. Here are a few other posts on podcasting I found helpful from Sumo, and Smart Passive Income.

Take Notes on What Makes a Show Engaging

Do this when you are getting started with your show and as you continue on. Be considerate of your listeners and become a student of what makes podcasts enjoyable to listen to, informative, and addictive.

Listen to shows in your industry, listen closely to shows you subscribe to, and listen to podcasts ranked among the most popular. Take diligent notes on what seems to make them ‘good.’

Consider Your Podcast an Experiment

Remember: If you start a podcast, it doesn’t mean you have to do it forever. This was advice I took from Tim Ferriss when he started his podcast some years ago, he committed to do a finite number of initial episodes as an ‘experiment’ to determine if he liked it or not. More and more I think that is a great approach to getting started.

Start a podcast with the idea that you can stop! If it’s not going to be the content medium for you, there are plenty of others.

Batch Episodes for a Launch

When we launched the podcast, I knew we’d consistently publish one episode per week. However, for the launch specifically, I wanted to create some buzz around the show.

So, when launching, we put out 3 episodes in the first week (with 2 on day 1), 2 in the second, and then finally got to 1 per week. This was a good way to get some momentum of initial downloads and, luckily, guests were generous in sharing their episodes, which was also helpful with that momentum.

Record First Episodes with Friends (to get comfortable)

Please don’t record with guests you don’t know well for your first couple of episodes. First, test out the equipment solo or with a close friend or partner (thanks, Annie!).

Then, when you schedule recordings, find good friends to record your first podcast or two with to get the hang of things. I first recorded two episodes, one with my brother, and another with a long-time friend.

There will be some awkwardness and maybe some technical snafus, so you want to make sure and get those out with people who won’t mind and are with you on your mission to learn. When you start recording with guests you are less familiar with, you’ll want to be ‘game-ready’ to set a good impression and show that you are mindful and respectful of their time.

Ask Friends & Family for Reviews

Most people think that reviews affect your ranking or ‘New & Noteworthy’ position in Apple Podcasts (formerly iTunes) and Spotify. Everyone says this, but I’ve never seen this proven to be completely true.

However, getting reviews definitely helps with establishing the social proof for your show early on. If people are browsing for shows, seeing that others have reviewed it can certainly help tip someone over the edge to testing your show out.

Go Simple & Inexpensive with Gear

If you aren’t certain you’ll stick with podcasting forever, keep your gear simple and functional. Of course, don’t buy anything that is so low quality it’ll force you to invest in unnecessary replacements, but you don’t need to go top of the line for audio equipment.

Better yet, if you can borrow equipment from friends (which I was lucky enough to), do it!
It took me over a year to upgrade microphones, and now I use the Yeti Blue USB Microphone.

Build Your Checklists Early

From the get-go, I was building checklists for our podcast process as I went. When I was executing on much more of the process this was helpful because I didn’t miss any important steps, and when I started enlisting other people into active production roles, it made it much easier to hand off.

Take Criticism with a Grain of Salt

More likely than not, you’ll receive positive and negative feedback with the launch of your show. Be considerate of who gives that feedback to you. Are they your target audience? Do they listen to podcasts? Do you care what they say? Always remember, it’s harder to be the one making a podcast than criticizing those who are. 🙂

Don’t Rush into Naming Your Show

I ended up changing the title of our show to The Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation Podcast roughly 30-40 episodes in. Honestly, I wish that I named it this from the very beginning. I like the name of our business, Grow Ensemble, quite a bit. However, no one knew that name.

The name change has been useful because it’s closely related to keywords we want to rank for. Plus, if you search “Social Entrepreneurship Podcast” in Google, we’ll come up in a few different ways on that first page!

Create a Dedicated Landing Page for the Show

We have GrowEnsemble.com/podcast as a dedicated landing page for our podcast on our WordPress site. Here we aggregate our feed of most recent shows, link out to all the different places to listen or watch the show, as well as add in some of our strongest reviews.

This is a great way to easily share the show (not just specific episodes) with others.

This page has seen a reasonable amount of traffic since the launch of our show, and continues to every month.

Sustaining a Podcast

Systems

The #1 reason that podcasts seem to ‘fade’ or be inconsistent (in production and results) is that there aren’t proper systems setup to ensure the continual booking of guests or development of shows, recording of those shows, and publishing.

When you or your team are having to recreate the wheel for every episode, you are expending a lot of unnecessary time and energy that can often be a drag on momentum and motivation.

Use & Request Info from Guests Through Calendly

When guests or their team select a time slot that seems good for them, we simultaneously request key information that helps our process. That includes a brief bio, a photo, any important URLs we should promote, and a phone number just in case we need to get in touch with them.

This is essential so we don’t have to run in circles looking for information if someone is late for a recording, or scramble for a good headshot the day before we are publishing for promotional materials or show notes.

Connect Your PM Software

We use Asana for Project Management of our Podcast Editorial Calendar. Whenever a guest books a recording slot, we’ve connected Calendly to Asana so that a new task card is automatically created with all the guest’s intake information, and a deadline is set for the scheduled date for recording so I can be notified to prepare beforehand.

Zapier should have a connection from Calendly to almost any Project Management Software.

Have a Consistent Recording Space

This hasn’t always been possible for Annie and I depending on our home residence, or if we are traveling. But, if it’s possible, take advantage of having your podcast equipment near setup and at the ready! It makes podcast prep easier.

Set a Publishing Schedule

Having a consistent publishing schedule is both good for you and your team, as well as your audience. People want consistency! I don’t know about you with shows you really like, but I get in the habit of checking whether or not a new episode is published on their typical schedule. Similarly, we want to do this for our team, so we can reverse engineer how long each different stage of the production and publication stage should take.

Build a Team

To get to 100 episodes and beyond, you need a good team around you. We have audio editors, show notes writers, content support and designers to publish episodes, our Director of Partnerships to help book guests, social media support, and video editors. In total, we have 5 individual people involved in our podcast process (including myself), with a rotating staff of audio editors.
I cannot thank this team enough! Thanks, Rebecca, Kate, Sameer, Jess, Reuben, and Annie!

Automate Guest Follow-Up

Before we onboarded our wonderful Director of Partnerships & Communications to help with guest bookings, I was doing it solo! I would batch outreach to new guests for a once-a-month sprint. I’d send out maybe 5-10 personalized emails in a single day. However, most people don’t respond to a first email (if you’ve never contacted them before).

That’s why you need to follow up!

If you are manually tracking that follow-up, that outreach becomes burdensome quickly. Instead, use a tool like Mailshake, that will automate follow-up for you if your prospective guests don’t reply after a week or so.

Track Your Costs

Keep tabs on what it costs to produce a single episode. This will be a good litmus test for you from time to time as you measure the “worth” of your show. As well, if there are activities in your process that don’t seem to drive any worthwhile result (good guest experience, more downloads, etc.) then ditch it and save yourself the money.

Keep your process lean and focused on what’s enhancing the show overall.

Learn About Your Audience

This is critical for a number of reasons. (1) Many guests or PR teams will start to ask you about your target audience, download numbers, and subject matter areas. Come prepared with a response. (2) The better you know who your audience is, who is listening, etc., the better you’ll be able to connect with them via the show content. (3) It can make your show feel more real! Put some humans behind those download numbers, and recording and publishing your show will feel more ‘real.’
While I encourage all listeners to connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter, I also have this autoresponder set up in ConvertKit for whenever we add a new email list subscriber.

Hosting Guests & Recording a Podcast Interview

Be Aspirational in Your Guest Outreach

If there’s someone with a lot of ‘name id’ in your industry, still don’t be afraid to reach out to them! More often than not, people are very excited and willing to share their story and be featured. As long as your outreach isn’t annoying and it’s genuine, it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Look to Conference Speakers for Guests

If we are looking for guest ideas, we’ll sometimes look at Speakers for upcoming conferences or events in our space. These are great sources of people in our industry doing work we’ve yet to come across. Thanks, event organizers!

Don’t Say ‘Yes’ to Every Guest Pitch

We get pitched for guests to be on our show constantly! Most of the pitches are less than eye-catching and are easy to ignore. They don’t address us personally (or get our name wrong) and show clear signs of a ‘volume-based approach.’ Some pitches are better and more genuine, but still not a great fit. Be considerate to determine who your ideal guest is for what you want your show to be, and who your audience is. The people you say yes to may not hit the mark 100% of the time, but you get the hang of spotting compatibility as you go.

Create a Guest Guide

Your guests will always have questions about the recording process—what kind of questions do you ask, what’s the show about, who is the target audience, what happens after recording, what equipment should they use, etc., etc. You can save yourself time, and as well, be proactive with communication and creating a solid guest experience by creating a guest guide.

When a guest or their team books, the confirmation email has the guide linked within it. So does the calendar invite that comes with it.

Here’s a link to our podcast guest guide for reference.

Research Your Guests

Before every single interview episode, I consistently spend a few hours (or more) making myself familiar with my guest, their work, and where they’ve been featured previously. The time I apply varies from guest to guest (mostly based on how well-featured they have been and how well I already know them), but this time is incredibly important.

Your familiarity with your guests, their work, and their public thoughts obviously makes for a better conversation, but I also think it helps to build strong rapport as it shows you value them being on your show.

Setup ‘Recording Reminders’ for Guests

Everyone gets busy (duh). With that in mind, make sure whatever booking tool you are using (us: Calendly), make sure there are reminders 72 hours and 24 hours before a recording. I think that this sometimes prompts guests to cancel/reschedule if they’ve overbooked. Better early, before you are sitting around waiting for them to join the call.

Schedule in ‘Buffer Time’ for Your Recordings

Make sure that guests book a time slot that provides enough ‘buffer time’ outside recording the interview itself. Sometimes people are a few minutes late and, regardless, you’ll want to spend some time chit-chatting before and after. You also want to account for the times when conversations run longer than planned! Plan for that. 🙂 You don’t want you or your guest having to run off earlier than is ideal.

Follow Your Guests on Social Media

This is great for research, as well as keeping in touch with guests after the show. I can’t help but become fans of all the folks I chat with, so it’s always great to keep up with their work afterward, and I like to let them know I’m doing so with likes, shares, and comments. 🙂

If Your Guest Wrote a Book, Read It

My two favorite forms of guest research (1) listening to podcasts they’ve been on and (2) reading their book if they’ve written one. These are really great ways to get a better understanding of who they are and how they think before hopping on for a chat.

Plan to Make Friends with Your Guests

(Me clearly having “fun” with my friends from HOME Storytellers)

The best part of recording our podcast has been the relationships that I’ve made as a product. With 77 of our 100 episodes being guest interviews (as opposed to solo episodes), I feel like I’ve made 77 friends across the world!

From Uvita, Costa Rica to Boise, ID to Sweden and so many different places in between, I genuinely feel like I have people to take to lunch or grab a drink with whenever our paths cross.

But, I suppose, the friendly and welcoming community is just one of the many wonderful aspects of the purpose-driven business space! Either way, don’t overlook the wonderful opportunity a podcast provides for kicking off some really valuable and enriching relationships.

Follow-Up with Guests

Find good reasons to keep in touch with guests. Whether it’s about their episode, a personal update in their life, or something exciting happening with their company, make sure your podcast recording was the first encounter of many!

Let Guests Know When Their Show Is Launching

This is something people really care about, and, rightfully so! As excited as you might be to release your content, the guest (might) be 5-10x as excited to see their episode released and to share it with their network, family, and friends.

Think about any time you’ve been featured or interviewed anywhere! Isn’t it fun? Think about how your guest might feel, and keep them well in the loop.

Ask for Guest Referrals

When you finish an interview that you really loved, ask the guest for any potential recommendations for future guests. In most cases (of course, not all), people love to be connectors. And, good guests typically refer good guests!

This is a great way to deepen your relationship with existing guests and provide them an opportunity to offer an interesting experience to friends and close colleagues in their network. Plus, you’ll (now) have a friend in common with your next guest, which is great for comfortability.

Bring Guests on Twice!

We haven’t published a second episode with a guest yet, but we are getting close to doing so. Don’t be afraid to bring a guest on a second time for a different style of episode, to talk about something completely different, or to get an update on any projects they were getting started.

A second episode with a guest might be better than the first, especially if you’ve had the opportunity to continue nurturing the relationship since the first time you met/recorded.

Recording Podcasts

Be Consistent

More so than other mediums, if you want your podcast to gain traction, you have to be consistent. Seasonal or serialized podcasts work if you already have an established audience, but if you’re hoping to focus on starting or growing, consistency allows listeners to reliably work you into their normal routine.

Batch Recordings

recording-schedule — (This is what a typical 2-day recording stretch looks like)

I already mentioned that I recommend batching for your initial podcast rollout, but once you get going, this can be useful as well. I say this because, sometimes it can feel like you are on a ‘hamster wheel’ endlessly creating and recording shows whether you have you/your team recording every single week, or at random times.

Batching means you’re scheduling blocks of time (maybe even a full part of the day) to record multiple episodes, so you’re ahead. Then you can take some time off to focus elsewhere until the next batch is up.

Don’t Batch Recordings

So…uh…there’s definitely a sweet spot. When I first got on the practice of ‘batching recordings’ I may have overcorrected. At times, I would record 4 guest interviews in a day! I was too wiped out on those days to do anything else, and I found that I wasn’t able to bring myself fully to every episode.

I’ve since limited my schedule to have a max of 3 recordings per day with an adequate buffer between each. We’ll schedule 2 consecutive recording days (Tues/Wed or Wed/Thurs) every 3 weeks or so. With each 2-day batch, we’ll consistently get 3-6 recordings done, and that’s been a good balance for us.

Don’t Record on Mondays (or Fridays)

I don’t know about you, but I really prefer to preserve my Monday and Friday schedules to remain ‘open.’ On Mondays, I like to give myself time to recalibrate from the weekend and start the week on a good foot.

As well, I’m always doing prep the day before an episode, and you don’t want to put that pressure on yourself on a Sunday. I like to save Friday’s for writing and researching my Better World Weekly Newsletter, completing a weekly review, and reviewing the company scorecard. I have also anecdotally found that guests are more likely to reschedule on Mondays and Fridays. I think many of us think the same.

Check Your Wifi

If it’s within your control, check your wifi speeds with SpeedTest.net (preferably well ahead of recording time so you can do something about it before a show if need be). If your Zoom call is cutting out, that can distract you from connecting with your guest, and ultimately, it will affect listeners’ experience!

Don’t Store Audio Files Locally!

Use the cloud! For all our podcast recordings, we use a shared drive in Dropbox. I’m sure there are other suitable places to store your files, but the most important thing is to not store them on your local drive.

One time I spilled tea all over my laptop at a coffee shop and fried my hard drive. It was sad. I had to dish out an unexpected $1500 for a new MacBook that day, but I didn’t lose anything important because all my files were stored in Dropbox or other cloud-enabled services.

Don’t risk losing anything important…store it away in Dropbox.

Don’t Delete Any Show Files!

Speaking of…I think it’s worthwhile to keep every show file you’ve ever created (again, the case for a cloud storage service like Dropbox). You’ll never know when you may want to loop quotes from guests into future episodes or create a ‘best of’ show like we talk about below.

Eliminate All Distractions

Do the critical ‘pre-show’ check. Close out Slack, exit all browser tabs, silence your phone, and remove anything else in the room that might create any distraction for you/your guests.

Added to my ‘pre-show’ checklist—removing Milou’s collar.

Milou podcast — (A cutie, but her collar causes some ruckus)

Take Noise Cancelling Seriously

Audio quality is key. Quality audio can be the difference between someone sticking through your show or dropping off mid-episode. No matter how engaging your content might be, poor audio quality can be annoying and push listeners away. I researched quite a bit early on as to what would create high-quality audio for the show.

Be Present During Recording

Does this even be on the list? Yes. Do everything you can to be fully present while in conversation with guests. Interviews that the host or guest are just trying to ‘get through’ make for boring episodes and missed opportunities for creative, responsive questions.

Set Expectations in Pre-Recording

This is a routine I like to go through with guests when we first hop on the call. I want to make sure any questions about the show, the recording process, publication, etc. are answered. I’ll give my quick brief about how long we’ll record, what to expect with questions and the intro, and how long it will take roughly from recording to publication. I don’t want guests to feel unprepared, maybe excessively nervous, or in the dark about when their show will go live.

Ask ‘Rapid Fire’ Questions

It’s nice to have some consistent quick-hit questions you ask guests. A common one hosts ask (that I do too), is if the guest has any books to recommend. I love this for a few reasons. I love knowing what leaders in my space are reading and, we get to set ourselves up to create some great complimentary content (i.e. “The Most Recommended Books by 100 Social Entrepreneurs).

Record ‘Masters’

If there’s anything that you’ll repeat with almost every show, record a few different re-usable versions (masters) of your intro, midroll, and/or outros. This will save you time so you don’t have to re-record these things every time. To keep variety, record a few different variations and rotate them out each show.

Record Intros Immediately After Recording

Sometimes you’ll feel spent after a good interview. However, refuse the urge to ‘record your intro tomorrow.’ Any time that I’ve done this and put off recording an episode intro for another day, it takes me 2-3x as long because I need to re-remember what happened! It’s best to ride the connection of the interview right into the intro recording.

Keep Intros Brief

Along those lines, don’t overthink your intro! Keep it simple and concise to the overarching themes of the show, a brief intro and bio of your guest, and any pre-show CTAs you like to use to turn listeners into email list subscribers.

Record In-Person Interviews if You Can!

Ahhh, my in-person interviews have been really great experiences (duh). When the world allows for it once more, I’ll be seeing how many more of those I can fit in. It makes the recording a more ‘holistic experience,’ whether that means touring a guest’s office, grabbing coffee or a drink after, or just enjoying the value of chatting face-to-face.

Tools & Tricks for a Successful Podcast

Take Audio Quality Seriously

Ever listen to a podcast with poor audio quality? Did you finish listening to it? Or, did you hang on and suffer through it? Yup, that’s a bad experience to create for your listeners (and can have guests reflect poorly on the experience).

Yes, we’ve mentioned this once before…(see #46), but it’s well worth mentioning again.

Use a ‘Pop Filter’

A pop filter is a pretty essential recording tool to eliminate pops with “P’s” or loud “shhhes” when recording. Luckily, you can get them for pretty cheap!

Upgrade Your Webcam

The webcam on your laptop is most likely of pretty low quality. Don’t kill yourself over this, but definitely upgrade the camera you are using to record yourself on interviews. For the majority of my interviews, I’ve used the C930e Logitech Webcam, and it’s been pretty reliable.

I’ve been wanting to upgrade to the Logitech Brio, but with the COVID-19 pandemic and the work-from-home population booming, it’s been out of stock. Figuring out how to use my iPhone 11 Plus has been on my to-do list for some time.

Use a Discreet On Screen Timer While Recording

I use my time tracking app, Timeular, to track how long we’ve been recording. I like to track the time for the interview to keep episode lengths semi-consistent. I’m happy to allow conversations to follow a natural flow, I just also like to be mindful of time, especially if a guest has a hard stop.

Stand Up for Your Show!

Thankfully, this has only happened in extremely rare instances, but for one of my recordings, it sounded like the guest was clicking around on their mouse the whole episode. It threw me off and left me feeling really frustrated with the experience as a host. In retrospect, I wish I spoke up! At a minimum, we would’ve uncovered what was behind that clicking noise. It may have not been a mouse at all!

Take 10 Breaths & Move Before Logging in to the Call

It doesn’t matter the interview, it doesn’t matter the day. It doesn’t matter that we’ve done 100 episodes already! I always get a burst of anxiety when my interviews are about to hit. I want it to go well, I want the guest to enjoy themselves, I want it to be something people enjoy listening to. To help get me locked in, I’ll go through some deep breathing, squats, and push-ups. That helps turn a bit of the anxiety into focused energy.

Host Your Podcast with Libsyn

Now, I’m not 100% attached to Libsyn, but I did have us briefly switch from Libsyn to Anchor.fm and opted to return.

At the time, Anchor.fm was free (not sure if it still is). But, the most important thing was that I could schedule out episodes in advance with Libsyn and, at the time, I couldn’t with Anchor.fm.

I’ve been completely satisfied with Libsyn, no problems to ever report. I think the only thing I’d be interested in is more advanced analytics.

Take ‘Notes’ on Your Show

So, we’ve mentioned our show notes of course, but we also have our Episode Companions. These are really detailed, comprehensive notes that our team takes after every single guest episode.

This is an exceptional way for me/our team, to quickly review a show and remind ourselves of important takeaways and key concepts.

In addition to being valuable for listeners, this makes assembling ‘compilations’ much easier. Of course, this is an extra expense in the process, so…don’t worry about it if your budget is tight. But, as a bonus, you can use that to encourage people to subscribe.

Transcribing Shows

We don’t transcribe shows anymore, but it’s been useful in the past to review shows, grab important quotes, and publish our biggest compilation episode, “50 Social Entrepreneurs Changing the World Through Business.” We used Temi in the past, but they recently raised their rates. Other good options; Trint, Otter.ai, or Speechpad.

Use Interviews as Research

Of course, I’m always learning a ton from our guest conversations. However, sometimes the subject matter can seem all over the place as our publication schedule is often determined by who scheduled a slot when. This is something that’s a bit ‘aspirational’ for us, but I’ve always wanted to provide more focus and direction to the subject matter experts we bring on the show, to overlap with what sorts of topics we are writing about for our blog, or programs we are creating.

Have Friends Critique Your Podcast

Feedback on your show is (almost) always valuable. Friends have encouraged me to add breaks with music, add/remove sign points, and shorten my intros among other improvements. Encourage friends (who have an opinion on podcasting that will have some weight) to critically review your show.

Who to ask? Friends who might be in your target listenership, who listen to podcasts themselves, and/or have some experience in storytelling.

Post-Production

Don’t Edit Your Own Podcast

Even if you are the rare person who has had some background in audio engineering, I would recommend that you don’t edit your episodes. The most important reason? It will greatly increase the likelihood of your show not passing the test of time!

The role of the host is big enough! Take yourself out of everything but that. However, editing your first show or two might be a valuable exercise so that you can clearly make recommendations and prescriptions to the future editor(s) you work with.

I edited my first two episodes. I didn’t publish them. But, it was a good exercise just to see how much I’d value someone with the expertise to take this off my hands and to be able to have more intelligent and productive back and forth with editors.

Break Episodes Up with Music (Or Sound Effects)

A friend of mine worked with me for a brief moment on improving the quality of our show. With experience in editing and producing podcasts himself, he made the quick suggestion to break up episodes with musical transitions. It’s a small change that’s made a big difference in breaking up sometimes longer sections of solo episodes.

Thanks, Henry!

(Consider) Using Signposts

For a while, we added signposts to our episodes. I do think these added value to the show, but this sometimes required a good deal of time to our whole production and editing process. Signposts can help to break up episodes, encourage listeners to hang on, and prep/plan different sections of a recording.

Create Show Notes

Our show notes pages have been valuable for us, but not in the way most people think (see more below). A valuable, detailed set of show notes is an important reference point for your episode. This makes for having an easy link to share (you + guests). A reason to compel guests to share (if it’s something they’re proud to be featured on).

Get on Video

I do really wish we were doing this from Day One. Even if you aren’t ready to “publish” your video, start recording it as soon as you have the equipment. We’ve only recently launched our YouTube channel with full video interviews.

Get on Video (Pt. 2)

Having video allows you and your guests to better pick up on conversational queues. Being able to see each other will improve the human-to-human connection and as a product of that, improve the conversation.

Publishing a Podcast

Publish Twice Weekly

You don’t have to publish twice a week. Publishing once a week or twice a month consistently will do. But! Twice a week seems like something of a sweet spot for consistent growth of your show. Currently, we do one episode per week with a guest and one episode where I’m solo covering a topic that we’re covering on our blog. Sure, consistency is the most important thing, here. But, if you and your systems are equipped to take production to two shows a week, do it.

Optimize Your Episode Titles

This is a relatively new improvement we’ve made. Always something on the ‘to-do’ list that we finally got around to. It’s important to take your titles seriously, as that can oftentimes be the difference between someone scrolling your feed to dive into an episode or not knowing about you.

Optimize Your Episode Descriptions

We’ve yet to analyze the results from these more intentionally built descriptions, but we recently cleaned and organized what our episode descriptions look like. We want to make them clear and scannable, and most importantly, make the CTAs and options to subscribe to our newsletter easy.

(Consider) Not Numbering Your Episodes

We haven’t done this yet, but are strongly considering heading this way. Why? The last thing we want listeners to do when encountering ‘older’ episodes of ours is to think it’s just outdated and not relevant.

If our episodes are truly of an evergreen style (which we believe they are) then we don’t want potential listeners to assume they are outdated. Thanks, Noah Kagan for this tip.

Rethink Show Notes

When getting started podcasting, I read and heard countless recommendations for making sure you had a strong set of show notes for SEO purposes. However, I’m now learning, this recommendation is coming from many podcasters who don’t know Search Engine Optimization (SEO) that well.

Only a tiny percentage of our show notes get any long-term traffic from Google. Don’t follow what other podcasters are doing with show notes (the majority of them anyways). Instead…see #76.

Build Blog Posts Instead of Show Notes

While maybe more work, what’s most likely to collect long-term traffic is a set of show notes that’s built around the topic of your episode with the guest, not the guest or the company themselves. Any of our episodes that we’ve done that correspond with some of our high-traffic blogs, continue to get the most monthly downloads in the long term.

Promoting & Growing a Podcast

Be Patient with Growth

Growing a podcast audience has been hard! My primary skill is in growing blogs through SEO, and so building up our listenership has been new terrain for me.

We’ve seen a consistent trajectory of growth, every quarter driving a bigger listenership than the last, but, this hasn’t come with ebbs and flows. It’s required some patience as figuring out what drives downloads has taken some time.

We’ll consistently see 5-10% growth each month over the last. As long as it’s heading up and to the right, right?

Don’t Stress the ‘New & Noteworthy’ Placement

Does anyone really know how that works these days? Obviously being organically discovered on any platform (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Etc.) is great, but in my experience that’s hard to count on.

We’ve had more traction on building up audiences and traffic outside those apps (our blog, email list, etc.). But…if someone does know how increasing discoverability works on those platforms, let me know. 🙂

(Probably) Don’t Pay for Ads

We’ve done little experimentation with much more than Facebook Ads, but even from those, we didn’t see great results in video views on the platform turning into more listeners or subscribers. As well, our podcast provides a ‘return’ on our investment in it in such indirect ways, it’s hard to determine exactly how many listeners actually lead to some certain amount of sales. This might be an issue with our funnel, or as well the wide breadth of topics we cover, but…I like it that way.

Forget Sponsors (Mostly)

The traditional podcast advertising model doesn’t pay out all too well for the host. Everything I’ve read has told me it’s on average $20 per 1,000 downloads per episode. With those numbers, we’d make on average $20-$30 bucks in 2019. Not good. Most shows don’t accumulate the mass volume of downloads to make the advertising model something that’s actually sustainable.

Automate Promotion

Where possible, think about where you can set up systems to put some of your podcast promotion on ‘autopilot.’ For instance, we use a tool called MeetEdgar to promote our podcasts on our social media accounts perpetually. While it’s not going to ‘blow our show up,’ it’s great to have passive promotion going that we don’t have to touch.

Sponsor Yourself

If you really need to find more direct (or even indirect ways) to monetize your show, consider sponsoring yourself. Good advice I’ve heard from Charley Vahler over at Vahler Media. Use the end of your intro and a midroll to test out promoting your products/services.

Turn Listeners into Email List Subscribers

This is maybe the #1 thing is making the ‘most’ out of the audience you build around your show. Think about how you can take your listeners and deepen your relationship with them. The best way to do that? Encourage them to become email list subscribers. For us, we have our “Episode Companions” among other bonuses, to incentivize listeners to take another step with us in our relationship. Think about what that next step could be and insert those CTAs throughout your episode recordings.

Asks Guests to Link to Your Show Notes

This is a solid SEO strategy and a relatively easy ‘quick-win’ way to build up your website’s authority in the eyes of Google. A few weeks after each episode launches we follow up with the guest or their team to see if they might be willing to add our feature to a News, Press, or About page. Nearly 100% of the time, we get an enthusiastic “Yes!”

This helps boost the overall authority of our site and the guest’s page, which ultimately drives more traffic to each! You help your SEO and get more ‘ears’ on the guest and their work. Win-win!

Make it Easy for Guests to Promote

Having guests promoting your show is a great way to build buzz for a new episode and potentially capture new subscribers. Do whatever you can to make it easy for your guests to promote the episode. We set up a calendar event to remind guests when the episode will go live. We have a Google Doc swipe file with some templates and copy for promotion, and of course, we have our direct link to the episode show notes for easy shareability. With all these things in mind, it’s also important that you see #86.

Don’t PUSH on Guests to Promote

We all want guests to promote their episode. It helps grow our show! However, don’t expect guests to promote. The best thing about welcoming guests on your show is all the great friends you can make as a product of it (see next tip). Don’t mess with that.

Focus on creating a valuable connection and good experience for your guests and the majority of them will promote.

Promote Old Episodes

Although my interviewing skills have improved, I still think our early episodes are valuable for listeners (thanks to the guests, not the hosts). And so, while still a large area of opportunity for us, we do like to find reasons to keep promoting and re-promote old episodes.

Find Places to Republish Episodes

This is based on the principle of ‘making the most’ out of the quality content you took the time to create. For us, it was a great early privilege to start republishing all our podcast episodes on the B Corporation community’s blog, B the Change that has over 17,000 subscribers. This requires minimal work from us, but always gives us an additional spike in listenership.

Create Evergreen Episodes

If you want to set yourself up for the greatest chance of gathering a compounding listener base over time, you want to create a good majority of your episodes in such a way that if someone listens to it a year or two years after its publication, it still holds up. If you are publishing strictly timely/news-based content, then you can expect their relevance to fade and their download count over time to do the same.

Get on Other Podcasts with Audience/Topical Overlap

With the onboarding of a kick-ass Director of Partnerships & Communications, we just kicked off this strategy for podcast growth. Thinking through it, where might be the best place to access more podcast listeners? On other relevant podcasts…duh! However, crafting these pitches should be done with care and authenticity (see more below).

Make YOUR Pitches Genuine

If you are attempting to get booked on other podcasts, take the time to make your outreach genuine! Would you actually be a good guest for their show? How do you know? Have you listened to any episodes? We constantly get outreach saying “LOVE YOUR PODCAST! Can I be on it?” There’s no signs of personal touch or that they’ve even listened to an episode. Thumbs down.

Create ‘Best of’ Shows

When we crossed year one in running our show, we thought we’d do something special. That’s when we created Parts 1 and 2 of the “50 Social Entrepreneurs Changing the World through Business.” This episode was a great success. Many of the 50 guests featured shared it, linked to it, and for a while, that double part ‘best of’ show helped set a single-month download record that took us five months to beat!

Repurpose Episodes

If you are recording podcasts on video (or, even if you aren’t), there are a million ways you can reuse that content you already created. Get creative with it! Audio, text, & video can be reutilized for so many different platforms. Speaking of…#94…

Publish Quote Graphics on Instagram (and other platforms)

We’ve recorded 100 episodes…(did I mention that?). How many hours of content (and good quotes) do you think that is? Quote graphics are a great way to snip up an episode and have an unlimited stream of content for your different social platforms.

Create Audiograms

Again, same thing here. Add some life to quotes and create audiograms to go on Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.

podcast audiogram example — (Here’s a link to this audiogram example)

Publish Short Promo Videos

These are a ‘semi-recent’ phenomenon for us, that my friend Sameer Bhuchar has absolutely crushed for us. With every new episode, we drip out a short promo a few days beforehand to build some buzz. This gets the guest some traction early, as well gets them involved in promotion early as these little videos show them we are serious about getting listeners for their show. 🙂

Get Setup with All Podcasting Platforms

Easy thing to do here, especially with a tool like Libsyn. Make sure your show is on every one of the podcast directories known to civilization because why not? Once we made the initial connection on Libsyn, every time we publish a show it distributes to every podcast you can think of (except on Soundcloud!).

Embed a Podcast Player on Site

Again, a no-brainer. Of course, you’ll want to embed your podcast player on the show notes page on your website. However, we also have started embedding players on blog posts with relevant topics. This is a great way to get more exposure to the podcast and keep people on site for longer.

Build a Community for Your Guests &/or Listeners

This is something that’s aspirational for us as well. As we’ve mentioned, we’ve cultivated so many exceptional relationships through the podcast. I’ve been wondering about some way to bring all these excellent people together…but not just a traditional Facebook Group or something like that.

We recently launched the Better World Business Growth Community, and we hope that will serve us there, but still think there’s some value to be made here in more explicitly connecting all these people we’ve engaged with through the show.

Use Your Podcast to Write a Book

Another aspiration. I haven’t done it, but I think I could (as could any other podcast host who has covered their space in depth)!

Consider your interviews as opportunities to set the stage for a book you may publish later on. As our interviews are with some of the most accomplished entrepreneurs in our industry, there’s no question that I could use those as research and case studies for a book on social entrepreneurship and innovation…maybe that’s where I get working next. 🙂

So Good They Can’t Ignore You Summary, Quotes & Takeaways

September 14, 2018 by Cory Ames

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Are you wondering how to find work you love?

Or, at the least, a meaningful career? Or a sense of fulfillment in your working life?

If so, I highly recommend you read, So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love, by Cal Newport, an excellent book for those seeking career advice.

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On this page, I want to share with you a brief summary of the book as well as some of my favorite quotes and takeaways if you are interesting a digesting this read in a more bite-sized fashion.

Let’s get to it.

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What’s this book about? A Brief Summary of So Good They Can’t Ignore You

A quote from Steve Martin, one of the “Three Amigos,” was the inspiration for the title of Newport’s book. In a 2007 interview on the Charlie Rose show, Martin shared about what it’s been like, his ascension into comedic success…Martin claims the advice he gives on replicating a level of success that he achieved is not anything anyone wants to hear.

He said, “Nobody ever takes note of [my advice], because it’s not the answer they wanted to hear…What they want to hear is ‘Here’s how you get an agent, here’s how you write a script,’ …but I always say, ‘Be so good they can’t ignore you.'”

Newport’s motivation for this book came from a question he had, “Why do some people end up loving what they do, while so many others fail at this goal?”

And while the title of the book is the answer to the question Cal opens up with, Cal’s walkthrough of his research from studying those who have found “great work,” and the implications of how to find it yourself, are highly insightful and incredibly useful for someone in an existential bout with the question, “what do I do with my life?”

Cal Newport is an associate professor of computer science at Georgetown University, a blogger, and an author of some excellent books, another being Deep Work, a book I’ll surely write on later. I highly recommend checking out some of his other books and writing.

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What is “Great Work?”

To help with his definition of a “compelling career,” Cal calls on author Daniel Pink and references a TED talk of his, where he discusses his book, Drive, and claims that intrinsic motivation for your work comes from three things; autonomy (having control over what you do), competence (feeling you are good at what you do), and relatedness (feeling connection to those you work with).

And Newport argues that these sorts of “compelling careers,” often have “complex origins.” That being, developing a career that deeply serves those three characteristics mentioned by Pink, doesn’t just happen. Those types of careers are earned, cultivated and shaped over time. And, the overall arguement of Cal’s book, is that that type of career, can come to you faster, and with more certainty, if you pursue developing valuable skills (those valuable to the market you are in), above all else.

The takeaways I’ll share below will help walk you through how Cal builds this argument throughout his book.

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So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Quotes, Takeaways, & Lessons

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1. Following your passion is bad advice, “the passion hypothesis”

The first and most important claim Newport feels he should correct is that finding great work comes from first discovering what you are passionate about, and finding work that matches that.

While modern-day media and successful personalities have made this seem to be the case (Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford an example of that), Newport argues that the majority of folks who are successful and love what they do cultivated passion after they developed competence, and, that this “courage culture” being created where young people have to take a ‘chance’ pursuing what they love distorts career expectations and leaves young professionals chronically dissatisfied with their work.

Citing multiple studies, Newport claimed, “…the happiest, most passionate employees are not those who followed their passion into a position, but instead those who have been around long enough to become good at what they do.”

If we assume we need to follow a pre-existing passion to find work we love, we either find nothing that matches such an expectation, or all try to be NBA stars (as for much of my life, basketball was the only thing I would say I was passionate about).

2. Get Good, to Get “Better” Work

Cal claims that better work is rare, and highly valuable. And, in turn, to find it we ourselves need to develop skills that are rare, and valuable. Cal calls these skills “career capital,” your currency with which you accumulate and leverage to find work opportunities that are increasingly more attractive. The more skillful you become, the more diverse career opportunities you’ll have.

To develop these valuable skills, Cal encourages us to develop what he calls the “craftsman mindset.” This is an approach to your work where you focus on the quality of work you are producing, and the value you are driving to your organization or the market you are apart of.

He contrasts this with the “passion mindset,” an approach where you focus on what you are getting out of the job you have.

3. Getting Good, Requires an Intentional Effort

To truly get “so good,” you must apply a concerted effort. While in new positions and roles we inherently learn skills and grow, Cal says it’s important that we avoid a “performance plateau” when we hit a stage of being comfortable with our work. This is why he urges we implement what he calls “deliberate practice” into our work. That being, a deliberate focus at getting better at what we are doing.

4. To Answer a BIG Question like “What should I do with my life?” Start Small

While we all want to answer that question, especially in our angst-ridden 20s, we must settle with the fact that this particular question may never have a definitive and clear answer.

However, to advance this question, in the last section of the book, Think Small, Act Big, Newport suggests finding a “mission” in our work can help. But to do so, we mustn’t start and finish with some grand vision of providing clean water for everyone on the planet, we must first dip our toes in as to what we could call “little bets.”

These “little bets” being small but significant actions we can take to test if there might be a way to turn a general idea like saving the children, into a mission-driven project.

Through taking small actions as a means for gathering feedback we can see if our idea “passes important tests.”

One of which, Cal introduces with the help of Derek Sivers (author and entrepreneur), is the “Law of Financial Viability.” As Sivers says, money is a “neutral indicator of value,” and to know that someone would pay us for our idea, is an easy way to see, is our idea worth anything?

If no one wants to pay for it, we have an issue.

And, as a final note, Newport reminds us that finding a worthwhile and serious mission takes time. As he found in his research, many successful, highly mission-driven professionals were not able to derive some deep mission until they were at the “cutting edge” of what they were doing. That being, after they had spent years learning and understanding the industry and field of work they were in, they may have finally been able to actually grasp what might be needed of them given their experience.

So as a default, feel very content learning more, pursuing curiosities and using that as fuel to develop highly tangible, rare and valued skills.

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1. Following your passion is bad advice, “the passion hypothesis”

The first and most important claim Newport feels he should correct is that finding great work comes from first discovering what you are passionate about, and finding work that matches that.

2. Get Good, to Get “Better” Work

He contrasts this with the “passion mindset,” an approach where you focus on what you are getting out of the job you have.

3. Getting Good, Requires an Intentional Effort

4. To Answer a BIG Question like “What should I do with my life?” Start Small

While we all want to answer that question, especially in our angst-ridden 20s, we must settle with the fact that this particular question may never have a definitive and clear answer.

These “little bets” being small but significant actions we can take to test if there might be a way to turn a general idea like saving the children, into a mission-driven project.

Through taking small actions as a means for gathering feedback we can see if our idea “passes important tests.”

If no one wants to pay for it, we have an issue.

So as a default, feel very content learning more, pursuing curiosities and using that as fuel to develop highly tangible, rare and valued skills.

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Conclusion: Following Your Passion is Bad Advice, Instead, Focus on Building Skills. Agree or Disagree?

Finding the right work is overrated. Instead, we should focus on working right as Cal argues and surely, we will be rewarded with better work in due time. And, for the most part, I agree. A simple idea, but highly insightful and helpful at a young age when determining what you should focus your greatest efforts and energies on can be perplexing.

Searching for your “dream job,” with no career capital in your pocket can leave you chronically dissatisfied…good career advice for any.

If you’d like, you can pick up Cal’s book on Amazon.com through this link, here.

What do you think?

Do you agree, or disagree? Let me know in the comments below.

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Anything You Want By Derek Sivers: Summary & 5 Key Takeaways

August 29, 2018 by Cory Ames

Derek Sivers is my favorite kind of entrepreneur. And, I think you won’t be able to help but like him too…

Why?

Well, it’s not because we seem to agree on most things…(yes, that’s a large part), but it’s because of his confidence and conviction to be exactly the type of entrepreneur he wants to be.

Find it On Amazon

Not, what or who others expect him to be.

This is a complex of my own. I’m technically an “entrepreneur” (I hate that word and I’ve said it 3 times already in this post), but I don’t feel completely aligned with the culture around entrepreneurship and small business.

Money and profits drive the motivations of many of these folks. Or, not so much money, but what they think it will give them; status, power, a feeling of “I’m ok.”

We could talk at length about ROI, about aligning incentives, and the funding your startup hopes to receive…or we could talk about what business and the creative spirit of entrepreneurship really is about, helping other people.

And it’s these things that I like most about Derek, and reading Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur affirmed that.

This isn’t an ordinary business book. Derek doesn’t talk ROI nor does he encourage you to “hustle, hustle, hustle.” In this book, Derek encourages you to abide by a few simple principles, principles that many entrepreneurs over look, and it all begins with making your journey through entrepreneurship…exactly what you want.

Through the beginnings of CD Baby to being dissed by Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs in a keynote, Derek’s stories help demonstrate the lessons he’s trying to share clearly.

A post like this is a digest for me of my notes, takeaways and in some cases necessary summary of what I read. So, I recommend reading the book first, before digging into these posts. You can find Derek’s book on Amazon, here.

This book of Derek’s is a quick read! You can finish it in one Sunday, like I did. 🙂

Source: https://sivers.org/

Brief Background on Derek Sivers

Derek Sivers is an entrepreneur and musician. He founded the online business CD Baby, a platform for independent musicians to sell their music, and sold the company for $22 million dollars. This book, Anything You Want…is all about his journey of starting, growing and ultimately selling CD Baby, and all the lessons he learned as a product of that.

If you want to hear more from Derek, I highly recommend checking out some of his presentations, Ted Talks, and various keynotes here. Also, where I first encountered Derek, a great interview with Tim Ferriss, here.

Who might this book be good for?

The “non-traditional” entrepreneur – Does something feel “off” to you in traditional business culture? Do useless widgets and startup “buzz” irk you in some sort of insatiable way?
The aspiring (or early stage) entrepreneur – This very short book has moved to the top of the list of books I would recommend to anyone interested in getting “into” entrepreneurship or who has an idea they’d like to turn into a business. Wonderful, and most importantly, SIMPLE advice towards getting started right away.
The ambitious, non-entrepreneur – After finishing this book I recommended it to my sweet sweet girlfriend. She wouldn’t consider herself “business oriented” in the slightest. But, she has an appetite for creating useful things and helping people. I feel Derek has the ability to cross between many different demographics of folks (maybe that’s because of his eclectic background? Professional musician? Circus performer?).

What questions may it have you ask, or help to answer?

I think a book is only as good as the questions it inspires you to ask of yourself, or the answers it seemingly helps to provide for questions you already have.

Anyways, some of my favorite questions asked implicitly or explicitly from Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur:

What’s your personal philosophy? What to you believe, what makes you happy, and what do you value?
What’s the simplest (and perhaps smallest) way I can get started working on my “big vision” today?
“How can I best help you [my customer] now?”
Why am I doing what I’m doing? “Are you helping people? Are they happy? Are you happy? Are you profitable? Isn’t [or is] that enough?”
“How do you grade yourself?” What are your personal measures of success?
What’s a simple and clear problem you could solve for a group or community you are apart of, or deeply care about and understand?
What would you do, what systems would you have to improve or discard, if your business doubled tomorrow?

Oof! Plenty of good questions to spark some creative, deep thought.

But, without further ado, here are my takeaways, lessons and great fundamentals to entrepreneurship Derek shares from his business experience. As stated before, I do recommend you read it first!

Anything You Want by Derek Sivers: 5 Key Takeaways & Lessons

1. Deeply Understand, Contemplate & Evaluate Your WHY

Derek opens his book in saying, “Most people don’t know why they’re doing what they’re doing.” And, he quickly urges…

“Don’t be on your deathbed someday, having squandered your one chance at life, full of regret because you pursued little distractions instead of big dreams. You need to know your personal philosophy of what makes you happy and what’s worth doing.”

Perhaps my biggest takeaway from Derek’s book was this: identify what you value and what fulfills you and do that. Ensure your expectations, ambitions and desires are your own through and through. Not someone else’s.

The only thing that I would exchange, is Derek’s use of the word “happy.” I would imagine but cannot be certain, that he would say the happiness he is referring to is relatively synonymous with “fulfillment.”

There’s nothing inherently wrong with stress or struggle. Everything has it’s shit. It’s a “choose” your shit sort of thing.

2. Business is about GIVING and Making Something Useful, Not Money

“Business is not about money. It’s about making dreams come true for others and for yourself. Making a company is a great way to improve the world while improving yourself. When you make a company, you make a utopia. It’s where you design your perfect world. Never do anything just for the money. Don’t pursue business just for your own gain. Only answer the calls for help.”

Ahh, this was something so refreshing to read, especially when you feel as if all signals and signs are pointing to the contrary…a shot from my Facebook feed…

He is literally holding a stack of money in his hand…and wait…

What in the hell is that equation?!?!?!?

3 – 5 clients, multiplied by $ = $$$$$$

I can’t….I just can’t…

What the hell was I talking about?

Oh, that’s right…thanks Derek. It’s nice to be reminded that our creative ambitions and appetites are best used as a means to serve and solve meaningful problems for others.

As mentioned in the questions I listed above, Derek instructs to “Never forget why you’re really doing what you’re doing. Are you helping people? Are they happy? Are you happy? Are you profitable? Isn’t that enough?”

A worthwhile group of questions to check in on regularly.

3. Keep Things Simple!

A prominent theme, or mantra of Derek’s, “keeping things simple” seemed to cover many different aspects of what Derek was trying to teach about life and business.

Business Plans & Strategy – “A business plan should never take more than a few hours of work–hopefully no more than a few minutes. The best plans start simple.” Don’t hurt yourself back making a new venture more complicated than it needs to be. What’s the simplest thing you can do now? Get started there, worry about the future in the future.
Big Aspirational Visions – Too large of a vision or aspiration can be paralyzing. Derek encourages you “start small.” “Starting small puts 100 percent of your energy into actually solving real problems for real people. It gives you a stronger foundation to grow from.” “So please don’t think you need a huge vision. Just stay focused on helping people today.”

4. Your “North Star” in Business is Who You Serve (Customers)

Everything begins and ends with who you are serving. Without any customers, you’d have no business, right?

Derek asserts, “Care about your customers more than about yourself, and you’ll do well.”

There are layers to using your customers as a guiding light for your business which Derek touches on in a few different ways:

You can’t be a “band-aid” – This is something I really like and have thought about a bit. Businesses should strive to be a permanent solution, not a temporary one. And sometimes, this means that they’d run themselves out of business. But, Derek urges, “Your company should be willing to die for your customers.”

You are in business to help others. Keep what’s in their best interest in mind at all times. So much so, that you look to completely solve the problem they have, not just provide a short-term fix.

While I struggle with the belief that the world doesn’t need another “SEO Company,” this has been my philosophy starting and running Open Book SEO, I educate my clients and customers to a point to where they don’t need me. If they ultimately don’t, I’ve done my job.

Business “Strategy” Comes from Your Customers – There’s an obsession with scaling, growth, and in the startup culture, getting “funded.” As Derek argued, every decision you make for your business and where it should head, who you are serving should come first. Does it improve their experience? Would expanded be better/worse for your customers? How could you expand and make it better?

If at any point there’s a sacrifice for the folks you are serving on the other end, you have a good idea of what your decision should be.

Re-calibrate with asking yourself, how could I best help my customers now? That should drive your business efforts.

Idea Testing? – There’s no way to know how good of an idea you have is, until it’s shared with the world. Derek says to “present each new idea or improvement to the world,” and if their response is anything less than, “Hell yes!” go back and improve and start the cycle all over again. But the key thing to note, your “good idea” is nothing without the feedback.

5. Don’t Act Out of Scarcity & Exclude Where Appropriate

Many entrepreneurs and business owners are running their businesses off of scarcity. I’ve been doing this for the last 12+ months or so.

I’ve felt anxiety about making money, deciding exactly what vision I had for what I was doing, and doing things the “right” way.

I’m sure in many interactions people could smell the desperation on me. Being reminded here from Derek about what’s important, I focused on the inverse, abundance.

A great quote from Derek,

“If you set up your business like you don’t need the money, people are happier to pay you…set up your business like you don’t need the money, and it’ll likely come your way.”

A business built out of desperation won’t last. Or, maybe it will, but it will be damn painful running it.

Don’t forget that there’s always enough to go around. And, if you are helpful, focusing on giving vs. taking the money will follow.

And that comes to the second point here, of choice exclusion. Derek reminds us that we can’t serve everybody, but we should stay loyal to the 1% of people who we do serve. We should “imagine that you have designed your business to have no big clients, just lots of little ones.” And that “You don’t need to change what you do to please one client; you need to please only the majority (or yourself).”

Sometimes that’s difficult to forget. In my experience of running a digital marketing agency, I found often times our team would bend to the will of absurd clients. We didn’t know where we stood, and we let a few clients run our business vs. us tell them what we could do for them.

And this is the power and empowerment that comes with being confident about not serving everyone, remember that the are more than enough of the people who align with your values (who are willing to pay you), you just have to draw the right line in the sand, the one that truly does align with your philosophy and let them know.

Conclusion: Want More Derek Sivers?

Yeah, me too. I know I can’t wait for his new book, “Hell Yeah, or No.” If you are interested, you can check out his personal site, https://sivers.org/.

A great book at a perfect time for me. I’d say Derek’s healthy approach to entrepreneurship is perfect for the ambitious twenty-something who can be victim to an existential crisis or two.

A few of Derek’s guiding principles can take you a long way, and that’s what I feel they did, and will do, for me.

Have you read Derek’s book, Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur?

If so, let me know in the comments and post one of your favorite quotes. If you haven’t, go ahead and pick up the Kindle copy on Amazon, here.

Micromanagers Kill Business Growth

June 2, 2017 by Cory Ames

Since the age of 20, I’ve been managing a team of people. In both my success and failures, I want to share more of what I’m learning.

I’m starting from zero experience, and I’m on a journey to be a more instructive leader and manager of people.

As I endure this journey, I want to help others learn things too. Managing people is hard. Even more so if you’re much younger and inexperienced than the team you’re leading.

So here we are, stepping into my first attempt to do so. Today I want to talk about something important, for managers young and old: avoiding micromanagement.

Micromanagement: A Stranglehold on Your Team’s Potential

Micromanagement. What is it? What does it look like? How do you know when you’re doing it?

Google says, to micromanage means to “control every part, however small, of an enterprise or activity.”

As a manager, this means you are heavily invested in how your team is moving towards their goals.

Side note: I also think it’s hilarious how aggressive the trend is in the mentioning of this term. People love to throw it around.

I remember the first time I received direct feedback on being a micromanager. It stung. It’s tough feedback to swallow.

I put so much energy and emotion into my teams’, my company, and my own development. Receiving that feedback was what I’d imagine raising a kid would be like.

You do all that you can to give them the world, set them up success, and then when they turn 16 they tell you that you suck and they hate you.

Although I’d suggest not trusting my metaphor—I’m 22, single, and definitely don’t have kids. Take from that what you will.

But what I’ve come to realize is this: high performing people hate micromanagement.

Low performing people will most likely throw this term around as some sort of safety lever (and keep that in mind).

But all in all, it’s something that’s better to avoid.

Micromanaged people feel afraid to fail, create, and innovate.

In this dynamic, the manager—not the report—is the limit on development.

Being the bottleneck on the level of development, innovation, and creation your team produces greatly hinders performance. Don’t do that.

Really. And I’ll let you know why.

What Micromanaging Does to Your Team and Reports:

In my position, I manage three teams of people. Three out of three of my direct reports (the team leads) are older than me. Two out three of my direct reports have more years of professional experience than I have in years of my life.

Coming to this obvious realization, I thought to myself: “What the fuck?”

That is, what business do I have telling these people how to do their job?

Can you imagine how insulted they must feel to have a 22-year-old telling them exactly how to do their job? That’s like a high-school senior telling Charles Bukowski how to drink.

When I first received this feedback on being guilty of micromanaging, I almost threw up in my mouth. I felt shame for the lack of respect my actions displayed.

Luckily, I work with amazing people.

Their patience for my development as a leader and manager has been a godsend.

I imagine that our situation could have become much worse otherwise.

The Mal-Effects of Micromanagement:

If you micromanage you may see (or not see) some of the following occur in your business:

Missed opportunity for innovations

As mentioned above, a leader that micromanages curtails a team’s comfort level with experimentation.

If you are the ceiling on your team’s development and innovation, you are dramatically affecting the health of your business.

Allows low performers to linger

Micromanaging keeps low performers hidden. A micromanager does not let people shine, or for that matter, flounder (too explicitly). Hand-holding keeps true levels of performance your people are actually able to produce unknown.

If you are always there to “save them,” how can you know if they’re capable of saving and / or thriving themselves?

Lose trust with your team, and frustrate them

Whether intended or not, the action of telling someone how to do a task or project makes them feel untrusted.

It’s like a backseat driver telling you every direction on how to get to your own house. After enough time you feel like telling that person to back off, as you’ve done the drive a million times.

You feel this person doesn’t trust you, so you don’t trust them.

Time-sucks

People who don’t feel empowered will come to you for approval on decisions big and small. If you don’t empower your people to make play-by-play calls (#sportsmetaphor) you’ll keep giving your time where you shouldn’t spend it.

Fragility

Try leaving for a vacation with a team you’ve micromanaged. You want a team who won’t skip a beat while you are out.

A team with these issues running wild isn’t a team at all.

Let’s revisit what it is we do want to have with our teams.

What you should have with your teams (at least what I want to have):

Autonomy!

I want my teams to operate autonomously. As long as we’re headed in the same direction, then I leave the nitty gritty of project and task details up to them. Why spend extra time planning their projects and approving their decisions when I should be working on my own?

In a wonderful read on management, First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently, it’s suggested to:

“Keep the focus on outcomes: The role of the company is to identify the desired end. The role of the individual is to find the best means possible to achieve that end. Therefore strong companies become experts in the destination and give the individual the thrill of the journey.”

Mutual Trust

I want my people to trust that I believe in their competence and capability to make a large impact on our business and our strategic direction. I want to trust their ability to deliver. I want them to trust that I believe in them.

Time to Build Relationships

Spending less time approving small decisions, and conducting “progress checks” on tasks and projects frees up time to let us get to know each other better. We talk about the Seahawks, yoga, salsa dancing, travel, life experience, etc. and it’s awesome. I get to learn how great the people are that I work with. And I get to share more of myself with them. Win win win.

Long-term vs. Short-Term Thinking

Once a trust is established that we’re on track on our latest active initiatives, we get to open conversations like “what’s next?” More than ever, my team and I are talking about not just this week, but also the next month / quarter / year. I want to encourage big thinking.

NO LIMIT ON YOUR TEAM’S DEVELOPMENT

Again! I’m going to repeat this point over and over. I want my people to feel that the sky’s the limit (to engage in cliche) with their development. I want my people to constantly wow me and surprise me with the larger and larger impact that they are making through their continued freedom to experiment, innovate, and create.

Now that your mouth is watering with an image of what a team could be, let me micromanage you and tell you how to get there.

How do we get that? (Hint: It has to do with the end result):

Refocus yourself on the current end result you are looking for.

For me, this was our department’s quarterly initiatives. What is it you’re trying to accomplish?

Ensure that you are clear on what end result you are trying to achieve.

Do some journaling on this if you aren’t exactly sure. Make sure your metrics are clear, trackable, and the end result desired is objectively clear. And remember, don’t focus on what the “how” looks like. How much do you really care how a job was done if it ends up achieving the end result that you wanted?

Change the conversation you have with your reports from the immediate to the end result.

Next time you speak with your direct reports, check for alignment with where you’re headed. Open things up by letting them speak and answer the question, “Where do you feel we are trying to get in a month / 90 days / 6 months / etc.?”

It’s important that you let them share before you do.

Then, realign where necessary!

After your report has shared their understanding of the vision for the team / department / company, notice where you are and are not in alignment. This is where you share or provide feedback.

Once you’re in agreement and alignment, check less on progress and focus on trusting your team.

Don’t use every meeting to check on the progress and a status update on the current project or active task. Just ask “Are we on track to get where we both want to be in [time frame]?” If they say yes,trust them. If they say no, then ask why that is and see where you can help.

Only interject when they need help, and ask “What support do you need to make sure we are well on track to hit the desired end result?”

Help with roadblocks, resources, and feedback, but only when your team member suggests that you are falling off track on a current initiative.

Still get the details, but be OK with having them delivered less often.

Stay up to date on how things are being done, but don’t concern yourself with this weekly…move this to bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly. If you trusted one of your reports to move their department or team in the right direction, and only check in on that quarterly, wouldn’t that be awesome? What would that free you up to focus on?

Spend your energy elsewhere…like you should be.

Once you’ve freed your time up after resigning from your previous bad micromanaging habits, move on to focus on other things. How can you better contribute to your own company rather than spending your time managing other’s tasks / projects when they can completely manage them themselves? Free yourself up to continue to think about where your department / company / etc. is headed. No one should know the future of your company better than you.

But wait, Cory, you’re crazy, my people won’t possibly deliver if I don’t check in with them all the time!

If this is what you’re saying, and I imagine for some it is,then here’s how I’d ask that you walk through this objection with yourself.

I’d start with asking yourself first: what more could I do here? What have I failed to realize? What am I doing or not doing that I should or shouldn’t be?

As a manager it’s important to work the muscle of full ownership, as blaming your report first will get you nowhere.

Let me prescribe a decision tree:

If this is an objection that comes to mind for you, you need to ask yourself:

How clear are you on the desired end result of the project / task / initiative (Do you have metrics? Is project completion objective?)
How clearly did you communicate that? If at all? (In the past I’ve definitely missed the step of communicating the desired end result completely.)
If you got through those first 2 questions saying that you were super clear on both accounts, ask yourself: am I certain?
1. If yes:
  - Did you provide them with all the resources, support, etc. they needed? (Did you ask them, “What support do you need?”)
  - Is this the first time they’ve explicitly and clearly failed? (And if so, do both of you know that this is the case?)
  - Then, you must ask yourself: do you have the right person for the results you want to achieve? (Does this person align with the culture you want to have with your company and team?)
  - If you now realize you don’t have the right person, I’d suggest finding a replacement. Or accepting that you don’t, and then subsequently limit your team and your business’ progress.
2. If no:

Work on the end result.(Perhaps you weren’t clear enough on what you wanted—revisit this, journal, think, etc.)
Look at your communication. How did you communicate the vision / end result?
- Don’t spit out the vision, and see if they say “Yup, me too.” Let them speak first! Ask them: “Where do you think we are supposed to be at the end of this month / quarter / year?”
- Then see where you don’t align. It’s much clearer if you let them give you their best rendition of the vision that you are supposedly communicating.
After re-aligning the vision / end result / etc., try again and see what results you have.

A great part of this transition from micromanagement to the world of company-wide innovation, creation, and autonomy is not an easy one— it requires honesty. Honesty with yourself and your reports.

You must determine the real root of the issue of why you aren’t here yet. Is the problem you? Or is the problem actually the capability of your people?

Not everybody takes advantage of the freedom for working in an organization where they can create, innovate, and make an impact. In fact, I believe most people don’t. It’s your job to clarify which people you currently have, and then which people you need in your organization.

Letting Your Best Horses Run Free. Peace of Mind and Value Bombz for Your Team’s Performance

While I’m most likely not in the clear of mircomanaging, I feel I’ve greatly improved.

Every time I reflect on my “pre-understanding” of micromanaging my people and it’s potential pitfalls, I cringe. How much more wisely could I have been spending my time? How much value could my team have been free to provide?

But enough about the past— let’s talk about what comes next for us.

With time freed up from “managing the small things,” where does our time get spent? Just warning you, this is where the magic lives.

Your time should be spent on the vision. Think how you can contribute more, how you can impact the business like no one else can, and how you develop the leaders of tomorrow for your organization.

Essentially, you should be looking for:

What’s next for your company / organization’s industry? “How do you move with the rising tide?” as my current boss and mentor likes to say.
How do you keep your best people engaged and excited to work with you? Your people are everything. How can you invest more in them and their development?

So the short of this post: don’t be a micromanager.

If you are hiring high performers, than I’d suggest reminding yourself that you have no business telling a high performer exactly how they should do their job (especially if you are an inexperienced manager).

One of the reasons that you hire high performers is so that you don’t have to worry about telling them the “How.” You give them an end result. They get you there.

Final note: If you’re in a place where you can’t imagine feeling like your team could create, innovate, provide value, and be better than you at performing specific operations of your business, then you either need to re-read this post or look at who you are hiring (but that’s a topic for a future post).